


"Love"

by smamatha



Category: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
Genre: Comfort, F/M, Feelings, Kissing, Love Confessions, Post-The Dying of the Light
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-09
Updated: 2016-08-09
Packaged: 2018-08-07 17:50:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7724041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smamatha/pseuds/smamatha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Skulduggery drives Valkyrie home after their final scene in the Accelerator room. After the trauma of recent events they find comfort in each other and find themselves also confessing to deeper feelings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	"Love"

In one, swift movement Skulduggery turned to where Ravel sat beside the Accelerator and hoisted the man upwards and into the machine. Ravel barely had a moment to open his mouth in protest before Skulduggery slid the door shut. At once, Ravel started to hammer against the glass, thudding the door with his shackled hands.

“One soul. Which I am willingly giving to you.” Skulduggery said plainly, not even glancing toward Ravel, who now began to shout in protest, sudden fear seizing his features.

The Engineer paused for a moment.

Valkyrie’s mouth was still open, words not quite returning to her.

“You can’t do this! You can’t! I’m not sacrificing myself for this _shit_ , not for you-” Ravel began to scream, his eyes darting to the large digital clock in the room, ticking by their wasted time.

Skulduggery ignored him. “I don’t believe, Engineer, that you mentioned anything specific about the requisite soul being one’s own. Therefore, one soul - and I give it very willingly.”

“You can’t do this to me! How can you just kill one of your-”

“Erskine, I really wouldn’t say whatever you’re about to say.”

Ravel thought better of it, but still yammered on, pounding on the glass desperately.

The Engineer took a moment to assess the situation. Valkyrie held her breath. She wiped at her wet face, feeling the tightness in her chest slowly begin to unravel.

“It would seem you are correct, Detective Pleasant.” The Engineer said, speaking over Ravel’s increasingly desperate pleas. “Very well, one soul indeed. Do you wish me to shut down the Accelerator?”

“If you would be so kind.” Skulduggery replied coolly, turning away from Ravel as his face twisted in realisation as to what was about to happen.

“What? You’re not going to ask me for my last words? You’ve got nothing to say to me?” Ravel sputtered, desperation straining his voice.

“Nothing at all, Erskine. You’re not a Dead Man to me any more, just dead.”

The Engineer took its place beside the Accelerator. Skulduggery returned to Valkyrie’s side silently and they both watched as the Engineer performed whatever it had been programmed to do all those years ago, and Ravel was engulfed in a searing white light. He was given no chance to respond, no last rites, no pained scream, even.

_Good_ , thought Valkyrie.

When the Accelerator stopped whirring, and there was no trace of Erskine Ravel to be seen, Valkyrie’s shoulders sagged in relief. She turned to face Skulduggery, who was looking at the space where Ravel had just been standing.

She hit him in the chest.

“ _Ow_ ,” he said.

“I swear to God, Skulduggery,” she seethed, tears pricking at her eyes again before she could stop them.

“Is that any way to treat someone you love?”

“I _don’t_ love you, I _hate_ you, I hate you - I hate you so much.”

She began to hit him again, relentless, pummelling his chest until he brought his hands up to protect himself and she began to hit those, until she was crying again, and Skulduggery wrapped the bones of his arms around her and pulled her tight into a hug, and Valkyrie’s punches dropped and she became slack, and cried and cried into Skulduggery’s jacket.

**

They were in the bentley. Skulduggery did not have to wait for Valkyrie to ask him to be taken home - instead, he led her from the Accelerator room straight to his car and she sat back for the journey she knew he was taking. They travelled in silence, Valkyrie staring ahead, forcing herself to keep her eyes open despite the grey fatigue that washed over her with the sudden quiet of everything.

After a while, as her home came into view, she turned to Skulduggery.

“Don’t do that again.” She whispered; her words hard but relieved, like she may have laughed if she wasn’t so tired.

“For the sake of my chest, you have my word.”

“I thought you were going to just _leave_ me, you know,”

“You really ought to know by now that I have no such intention.”

“But _you _really made me think you were…” Valkyrie bit her lip. “Skulduggery, I don’t think I could live without you.”__

“I know that. Who can’t?”

Valkyrie sighed loudly, but she still smiled, to herself, keeping her gaze pointedly focussed outside the window. She watched the quiet pier without saying anything else, savouring her usual exasperation at Skulduggery’s reply, the easy wordlessness of her company, as the two pulled up in their usual spot. She sat still, watching the water, her mind heavy and weighted, until she noticed Skulduggery tapping his fingers gently against the steering wheel, and his apparent unwillingness to let her leave the bentley just yet. He wanted to say something.

Valkyrie turned to look at him, and he tilted his head.

“So… you love me?” he asked.

“That’s really playing on your mind isn’t it?” Valkyrie replied. She felt a blush beginning to creep from her temples. Her collar almost felt too tight.

“They’re big words.”

“Yeah,”

“We haven’t said that before,”

“We haven’t?”

“I haven’t.”

“Well?”

Skulduggery tilted his head again, seeming to think over his words longer than usual. For a moment Valkyrie was sure he would respond with his characteristic sarcasm, would brush off the excessive sentimentality, would say of course you love me, and it would be oddly comforting in all its familiarity.

But instead Skulduggery said, simply, “I love you, too.”

Valkyrie looked at him. She blinked. She hadn’t expected that. It was really such an ordinary thing to say and yet Valkyrie faltered for her words. Skulduggery took to filling the silence.

“I think by now you know how I feel about you, Valkyrie, but I suppose someone as vain as yourself can stand to hear it said a few more times.”

“Oh, I’m feeling the love already-”

“You’re my partner. I wouldn’t be where I am today if I had not met you. You may think I was strong to resist Vile when I did, but I think it is only now I’m truly recovering, because of you.”

Valkyrie sighed again. She fidgeted in her seat.

“Look,” She blurted, changing the subject. “I said it back there. I have to go. I don’t want to leave you and this, but I can’t stay here and live with this and myself and what I did. I just have to _go_ , _somewhere_ , and not be Darquesse. Not be Valkyrie.”

Skulduggery paused. “I understand,”

“You do?” Valkyrie felt tears in her eyes. It was as if everything she hadn’t had time to acknowledge or feel or think about had caught up with her in one blow, and she couldn’t hide any more from how tired she felt; tired, and sad, and ashamed. “You don’t think that’s weak? To just run away and hide and be a coward? To not work for some kind of redemption like you have?”

“You have suffered your fair share of trauma- I think a rest is in order. Besides, I know better than to stop you from something you’ve set your mind on. And… Valkyrie?”

“Yeah?”

“You will never be a coward. No matter what you think you could or should have done, the world is safer because you are in it. You will always be the bravest person I have ever known-”

Skulduggery’s words were cut off as Valkyrie threw herself across her seat to hold on to him. He was taken aback for a moment, but slowly wrapped his arms around her and held her to him.

“You know, if we keep on like this our hugs most certainly won’t seem as special as they once were.”

“Shut up. Please.”

“Okay.”

He held her wordlessly and she drew a few steadying breaths.

“I can’t scream and shout for you to stay now, can I?” He asked, and Valkyrie laughed weakly into his chest. “I can be quite persistent. What’s the point of a facade if I can’t use it to manipulate you with tears?”

“I’m sure you can think of something.”

Valkyrie looked up. Before Skulduggery could tilt his head, she brought her hand to cup the side of his skull and pressed a kiss to the space where his mouth should have been. It wasn’t the kiss Darquesse had given him; it wasn’t some concealed truth she was witnessing from behind a barrier, ashamed and confused. It was simple, it was conscious and suddenly there; something she knew she wanted. She felt his hands soften against her back as she moved, and when she pulled away Skulduggery held her close.

He paused for a moment before saying, “If you wanted a kiss, all you had to do was ask.”

“I want to hit you literally all of the time.”

Skulduggery laughed softly, and then pressed his finger lightly to the sigil on his neck. A fake face flowed over his skull; it was as unremarkable as the one he had used in the Accelerator room. Valkyrie stammered, realising what he was doing. It was not how she had expected this to go. Before she could stop herself she leant up to Skulduggery again and pressed her lips to his. He was stiff and unsure and she was soft, nervous, fervid. She moved her lips against his, delirious with her own temerity, her own impulsiveness, and Skulduggery held her close.

Valkyrie broke from the kiss slowly, a bright blush warming her face, and Skulduggery raised his eyebrows. She forced herself not to look away on instinct, not to bury herself in his chest and avoid talking about it. When Skulduggery didn’t say anything, she felt compelled to break the pause.

“Is this weird?”

“I don’t think this is weird,” Skulduggery answered. He tapped the sigil and his skull returned. “Because of the face or because of me?”

“I don’t think this is weird, either,” Valkyrie responded, without hesitating, but her inflection was almost a question, and she pulled away to her own seat. They sat in silence.

“You _love_ me.” Skulduggery said, looking forward, rehearing the words.

Valkyrie put her head in her hands. “I did say that.” She didn’t look up, processing what exactly had just happened. A very loud part of her brain was pleading with her to ignore everything and hurry up and run away.

“I would never have survived any of this without you,” She said, instead. 

She took a deep breath. “And I don’t just mean because of the fighting or the magic. I mean, I don’t know how I would have been able to live with myself and Darquesse and _Stephanie_ if I didn’t have you. I would have lost my mind. But you’re always there and you’ve always understood and you’ve always believed that I- that I’m more than I would ever believe of myself.”

“Valkyrie,”

“I have to leave. But after all this, after just now in the Accelerator room, I couldn’t go before I told you that.”

“I just didn’t know you felt like this,”

“…You knew.”

“I…” Skulduggery tilted his head. He reached his hand across the space between them and took Valkyrie’s hand away from her face. He decided to keep hold of it and Valkyrie reluctantly met his stare.

“I don’t want to change anything,” Valkyrie said quickly, her cheeks burning. She could feel her heartbeat, pulsing in her ears. “I don’t want to make things awkward. I don’t know why I did that, why I thought-”

“Valkyrie,”

“I don’t expect you to-”

“I said I love you, too, didn’t I?”

“I just… what?”

“I thought I just said that.”

Skulduggery interlaced his fingers with Valkyrie’s.

“I suppose neither one of us is going to win an award any time soon for the way we express our feelings.” Skulduggery mused.

Valkyrie huffed a weak laugh, through the tears that threatened to break once again. She wiped at her eyes with her free hand, feeling a smile ripple across her face.

“Definitely not,” she said, her words thick.

Skulduggery cleared his throat. “How long have you…?”

Valkyrie rolled her eyes. “I don’t know. I just… know now.”

“Four hundred years, and I don’t think there’s ever been anyone like you.” Skulduggery said quietly, and Valkyrie felt a lightness in her chest, a brightness. For the first time in a while, she savoured it, hearing Skulduggery’s words and believing them and letting them fill her.

“You’ll be here for me, when I get back, right?”

“Of course not.”

“ _Skulduggery_ ,” Valkyrie moaned.

“I use humour to mask my true feelings, Valkyrie, let me have this.”

She waited, and Skulduggery sighed.

“The moment you call I will be there. I will not stop waiting for you to come back, and I also will not stop pleading with you to do so. So, please, if you must leave do it quickly so your return will come sooner.”

Valkyrie, despite herself, despite the hurt and the exhaustion of everything that had happened, felt tears burst forward at such a simple reassurance. She tried to contain the hysterics of it, breathing deeply and jaggedly, her mind a swirl of reasons not to leave, of what their kiss would really mean, of everything she couldn’t quite stop ignoring any more.

_She was in love with him_.

She blinked the tears from her eyes, patting at the wetness on her cheeks with her palms and Skulduggery watched her patiently.

“Thank you,” She said, laughing, and she could almost see the smile that would have spread across Skulduggery’s featureless face. She unfastened her seatbelt and felt Skulduggery stiffen a little. Before she opened the door, she leant across to him and kissed him again, on the cheek.

“This is new,” She said, blinking.

“That’s a pretty accurate summation of us as people, don’t you think?”

She laughed again. Then she paused, inhaled, and slowly withdrew from her seat. Before she closed the door she narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you, like… my boyfriend now?”

“Oh, God. I think ‘partner’ still works just fine.”

She smiled at him and it was easy. There was a darkness that she couldn’t shirk, a dread clinging to the inside of her mind that was anxious and afraid, something she was so desperate to run from, but in this moment, with Skulduggery, it was easy, and she couldn’t help feeling comforted, like everything else was a world away.


End file.
